Borrowed Time
by acorngirl
Summary: CH. 5 & 6 UP!!! A Buddhist monk offers help to Buffy in her fight against the First by digging a mystical well in her backyard. Cross with Inuyasha. CH 5 & 6: Inuyasha's injuries worry everyone but Tetsuo reveals they have bigger reasons to fear.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is property of Mutant Enemy, Joss Whedon and their various subsidiaries. "Inuyasha" was created by Takahashi Rumiko and is owned by Shogakukan and various other entities that are also not me. I make no money from this. Actually I make no money at all.  
  
"Borrowed Time" -- Prologue  
  
A soft rain began to fall as Xander maneuvered a large backhoe in Buffy Summer's back yard. The sun had set hours before, leaving him virtually no light with which to see the deep hole he was digging.  
  
Buffy and Willow watched him in silence as Spike shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe you're wasting your time with this," he said in a low voice.  
  
Buffy's gaze never left the gaping hole in her yard. "Giles trusts him," she replied with quiet seriousness. "That's enough for me."  
  
They sought no shelter from the rain. Slowly it soaked through their clothes and their hair, running down their faces but they were compelled to stay. Someone came to offer help, a rare occurrence in their lives. If the possibility were genuine, they would accept no matter how strange it seemed. They didn't give in to hope, but they would witness.  
  
Overseeing all of this with an authority afforded to him by the robes he wore, stood a Buddhist monk. He had arrived nearly two days before. Giles had received him warmly with an unmistakable sense of relief that began to chip away at his despair. He knew the monk and regarded him as a friend. His name was 'Tetsuo'.  
  
He was close to the watcher in age and possessed a similar background in the supernatural. They differed only by culture and appearance. Even the monk's nature was a balance of patience and superior expertise.  
  
As the toothed scoop of the backhoe scraped its purchase from the earth, it elongated the opening of the hole. Tetsuo frowned his disapproval at this. "Be careful, Mr. Harris," he called out to Xander. "This is to be a well, not a grave."  
  
Xander adjusted his controls as he deposited the dirt away from his hole. "I'm afraid I'm the best you can get," he replied with a tone so light he seemed to not feel slighted at the monk's comment. "There aren't many licensed back-hoe operators who are willing to dig mystical wells on a dark and stormy night."  
  
Tetsuo's frown deepened. His left hand, cloaked in a cloth that was held in place by prayer beads, reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. He had suddenly become aware of the insulting tone of his instruction. "Forgive me," he said almost too quietly to be heard over the sound of the large machine. "I forget my place." He held up his hand to tell Xander to stop.  
  
The monk stepped to the edge of the deep hole. He looked down into its darkness, gauging its size and depth. "You may stop," he said finally. "This is sufficient."  
  
Xander cut off the power to the backhoe and Buffy's yard fell to an almost deafening silence. "What is this supposed to do?" he asked as he left the machine to join his friends in their moody vigil. His words cut sharply into the void like a knife, jolting them and drawing an awkward attention to himself.  
  
With his eyes still focused on the hole, Tetsuo answered, "From this well will spring something powerful." He paused, seemingly lost in his thoughts. He then turned and faced Buffy and the others as he voiced his thoughts aloud. "Something useful in your war against the First."  
  
Willow forced a polite smile. "Well . . . that's hopeful."  
  
"In all its vagueness," Xander replied under his breath.  
  
Spike snorted in disgust, trying to ignore the rain. He wanted to go inside but he knew he would stay. His loyalty laid with Buffy and she would stand there stoically until this monk would show his worth.  
  
From his robes, Tetsuo pulled out what appeared to be a weathered piece of wood about a foot long. He placed it at the edge of the hole. "This wood was taken from a sacred well in my homeland," he explained. He reached into his robes again and retrieved a very old piece of parchment. "And this," he continued with a sense of reverence in his voice, "this prayer scroll was written almost 500 years ago by my honored ancestor, in anticipation of this day." He then knelt upon the wet ground and placed the parchment across the piece of wood. He stood watch over his relic of the past as the rain pressed it further into the wood.  
  
Throughout the rainy evening, Buffy's face never faltered from its grim expression. She would not allow herself to hope. Too many dark thoughts clouded her mind for her to give space to it. "Now what?" she asked quietly.  
  
"Now, we wait," Tetsuo replied. As the statement left his mouth a bright flash of light emanated from the bottom of the dark hole. It illuminated their faces in a pale white light for the briefest of seconds and then fell back to darkness again.  
  
Willow's mind began to work over the possibilities. "It could be a power source," she mused, "or some great weapon or ---"  
  
"WHAT THE $%#@!!!" a loud, distinctively male voice yelled out from the hole. "WHERE AM I?!? HOW THE $%#@ DID I GET HERE?!!!"  
  
Willow's face dissolved into worry as her speculation ended. "Or someone really, really angry," she concluded.  
  
Spike wrinkled his nose in annoyance. "I smell something," he said.  
  
"What?" Buffy asked, tensing.  
  
In all seriousness, Spike replied, "I smell dog."  
  
TBC  
  
Author's Note: Geez, I wouldn't be acorngirl if I didn't put in an author's note. Hope you liked that bit of a tease. If you did, let me know and I will get myself in gear to get the first chapter up soon.  
  
Chapter One: "Of Wells and Demons" -- Buffy's keeping secrets and Tetsuo's getting nervous as his surprise guest wants to leave the way he came. As Willow says, "No one I ever summoned was really happy to see me." All that and some uninvited guests. 


	2. Chapter One: Of Wells and Demons

Disclaimer is the same as in the prologue.  
  
Author's note at the end.  
  
"Borrowed Time" - Chapter One: Of Wells and Demons  
  
Inuyasha stared at the dirt walls around him and screamed his frustration at the powers that brought him there. Magic had become such an integral part of his life. He knew its touch instantly.  
  
His day had been calm, quiet, not that he was exactly content with that. He liked having something happen, a taste of action, but being ripped from his midday meal in a sun-filled day to find himself in a dark hole in the ground made him angry beyond description. On top of all that, it was raining.  
  
He heard voices above him and he took in the smells of his new surroundings. A low, guttural growl erupted from him as he isolated one scent. A demon stood outside of the hole.  
  
As Inuyasha leapt from the hole, a flash of lightning silhouetted his image against the suddenly brightened sky. With unbelievable speed and control he landed on his feet within inches of the demon's face.  
  
The only note of surprise Spike registered was a slightly raised eyebrow. He would not let his composure slip before the white-haired, golden-eyed demon boy in Japanese styled robes.  
  
"You," Inuyasha spat at the vampire as his dog-like pointed ears pinned themselves back against his head. "Did you bring me here?!"  
  
From behind him, a familiar voice asserted, "I did."  
  
Inuyasha turned to the monk and paused. Though his eyes seemed older and his hair a little thinner, he could have been a double for his friend. He stepped towards him as the recognition flickered across his face, but as he sniffed the air he found he was mistaken. "You're not Miroku," he said accusingly, stopping in his approach.  
  
"I am his descendent, Tetsuo," the monk replied. He bowed to the demon as a show of great respect. "You honor us with your presence, Lord Inuyasha."  
  
He looked away from the monk to the rest of them. Three humans and a demon.  
  
Xander smiled uncomfortably, "I guess you're not much in the helping mood."  
  
"Don't take it personally, Xander," Willow said comfortingly. "No one I ever summoned was really happy to see me." She tried to adopt his light mood but she couldn't dismiss the hateful look the dog demon gave them. They must have looked pathetic, standing in the rain. They hadn't expected a demon to be summoned and at the moment they weren't quite sure they wanted him to stay.  
  
Buffy looked at him without shame. She said nothing but almost seemed to dare him to say something to her.  
  
Inuyasha saw nothing remarkable about them, except a dispirited quietness he wanted nothing to do with. His eyes focused on the small, defiant woman. She did not seem to care what he wanted. Her mind dwelled on other things, things that his sudden presence would not distract her from. He regarded them all with disdain and turned away towards the hole he had just sprung from. "Feh, I don't have time for this."  
  
Determined to make his stay, Tetsuo called out to him, "These people you see before you have been targeted by an entity which describes itself as the First Evil. 500 years ago it ravaged your homeland in the form of a demon named Naraku." Inuyasha stopped and turned his face back towards Tetsuo. The name had struck a chord, as the monk knew it would. "You know him well," he commented. "Will you not aid them?"  
  
The dog demon did not move from where he stood but he would not concede to stay. "As you said, I've got my own problems," he countered.  
  
"For one week's time you and your companions will remain unchallenged," Tetsuo argued. How he felt he could make an assurance like this he did not reveal but his voice held an authority which made him believable. "All I ask is that you spend your time here, helping us, while they rest in the past. I promise you," he added with the hint of a challenge, "you won't be bored."  
  
Inuyasha began to snarl in annoyance. "You think you know me so well," he snapped. "You should know that I don't like being manipulated."  
  
This evening wasn't what anyone had expected. No longer content as merely an observer, Spike raised his voice in agreement. "The dog has a point," he said drolly. He opened his mouth to say something else but a distant sound and familiar scent robbed him of his speech.  
  
Buffy noticed his change immediately. "What is it?" she asked the alerted vampire though she didn't need to. She already knew the answer. She had seen all of this before in her dreams. Everything almost exactly as it was now down to the rain beating down on their heads.  
  
Almost. In her dream, Inuyasha wasn't there. But that didn't matter. Evidently her dream made room for inconsistencies. Her hope was lost. They were coming anyway and she had no choice but to meet them.  
  
Before Spike could respond, Dawn's voice screamed out from the house. "Buffy! Bringers!!"  
  
Willow and Spike turned and ran for the house. Sounds of broken glass and startled cries of potential slayers marked the fight that had begun. Xander followed, pausing only long enough to pick up a shovel to use as a weapon.  
  
Buffy focused impatient eyes on the insolent dog demon. She had not asked for his help and would not lower herself to beg for it now. "Stay! Go! It doesn't matter to me," she bit off the words coldly. "You have the choice. I don't. I have to fight." With that she turned and took off to join the fray.  
  
Inuyasha watched after her with surprise. She was small and she held no weapon that he could see but yet she ran boldly into battle. He could not shake that she seemed oddly familiar, a young woman with a deceptive look of frailty. He could hear them fighting. The sound was difficult for him to turn away from. The smell of the demons swarming the front of the house hit him like a wall. He swallowed the urge to follow her. This was not his fight. He wanted to go home . . .but the woman piqued his curiosity. "Who is she?" he asked the monk who had remained with him.  
  
"She is the Slayer," Tetsuo replied with calm satisfaction. The arrival of the Bringers and Buffy's outburst did more to convince Inuyasha to stay than any argument he could make.  
  
Inuyasha frowned at the title. It was cold and brutal and told of great power and responsibility hidden beneath the surface. He knew now where he had seen this before but it wasn't what he saw that creased his brow. It was what he smelled. "She looks like a girl," he said with a hint of sadness, "but she smells like death."  
  
Tetsuo remained, watching Inuyasha struggle with his decision. The sounds of fighting had increased. The dog demon shook it away and turned back to the makeshift well. He took one step and stopped.  
  
He had to see. He had to know what they were up against. He muttered something to himself, something dark and angry and then glancing at the monk, he gave him full blame for everything that he was about to do.  
  
Inuyasha leapt into the air following the path the Slayer had taken. While the others had gone through the house, she chose to go around, meeting her enemy from a different point. When he reached the front of the house he saw her in the midst of nearly a dozen, hairless, human looking demons.  
  
In the place of their eyes were archaic symbols that held no meaning to him. His attention focused on the Slayer. She fought with incredible force and fantastic agility. Her movements were nearly too fast for even his keen eyes to follow. Someone with her ability shouldn't need to ask for his help.  
  
Buffy had knocked two Bringers aside when she felt a rush of air as something leapt over her head. A blur of silvery white hair flew past her and began to sweep through the Bringers like they were dolls. She watched in amazement with the unfamiliar touch of hope lurking in her eyes.  
  
In a matter of seconds it was over. The attack had ended and what Bringers still stood left as quickly as they had appeared.  
  
Spike emerged from the house dragging the limp body of another Bringer. He tossed it to the ground with a little more force than was needed. "Did you know they were coming?" he asked her. His eyes were serious, accusing.  
  
"Yes," she admitted. Her tone was defiant, harder than she meant for it to be. She didn't have to hide her foreknowledge any longer. Tonight was just a test. The real battle lay ahead and the First had shown it to her. She would have to prepare them.  
  
Spike looked away from her trying to disguise his feelings of betrayal with anger. "And you felt it necessary to keep this valuable piece of information from the rest of us?"  
  
Buffy pointed back at her house and the dozen potential slayers seeking shelter there. "You remember what they were like the last time we got a heads up on an attack?!" she yelled at him. Immediately she felt a wash of guilt as she realized he couldn't remember. He wasn't there. She continued with a softer tone. "They cried and cowered and ran. Tonight would have been no different. They had to face the unknown and see for themselves what they were capable of. They needed to see what their instincts could do."  
  
"I'm not one of them," he said, letting the quiet sound of hurt back into his voice.  
  
"I know," she answered softly. She had nearly died getting him back and though she wouldn't admit it to anyone, getting him back was all that mattered to her. "I'm sorry, I should have told you."  
  
"You keep acting like you're alone in all of this. That our strength doesn't matter," he said, meeting her eyes and holding them. "We aren't here for protection. We have a stake in this too." He threw a glance behind him to Inuyasha crouching as he looked at the slain Bringers scattered across the yard. "We didn't just blow our evening digging an enormous hole in the ground for nothing. He looks useful. Put him to work."  
  
As Spike left her to return to the house, Buffy approached Inuyasha. He watched her with unreadable eyes. "Does this mean you're staying?" she asked, keeping her tone indifferent.  
  
He would not let her goad him into showing concern for their plight. These mindless demon Bringers were numerous but easily overcome. They were only a symptom of a much larger problem. He had examined them closely, their look, their smell. Nothing connected them to Naraku, but the pattern seemed familiar. Smaller, weaker demons sent en masse to do the work of their untouchable controller. If the pattern persisted, the demons would only get bigger and more powerful. He didn't want to stay and he knew they wouldn't-couldn't make him. He had been pulled into a mystery and he hated mysteries. But if he went back he would always wonder and that form of torture would be worse than leaving his friends for a week.  
  
The Slayer had to let her pride slip to ask for his help. It wasn't easy for her and such a show of weakness was worth something. "One week," he said finally, glaring down at the woman who had drawn his interest. The similarities did not end with the demons and the questions he wanted to ask the Slayer did not form themselves easily. He sensed something with her, smelled something that haunted him. Yet another mystery to solve. He had to know but he would wait. He had time. "I will give you one week and then I go back. Not one minute more."  
  
Buffy nodded faintly. She swallowed the smile that wanted to break across her face. "Sounds fair," she replied, extending her hand in welcome. He took it reluctantly. "Welcome to the Hellmouth."  
  
TBC  
  
Author's note: I'm sorry for the delay. As I indicated in my bio, something was wrong with my computer. Well, it's fixed now. My hard drive had to be reformatted which was painful. There are always things that you discover later you forgot to save. Now they are lost forever. But the important thing is I got chapter one to you.( I was going to write up a couple of little interludes before I went into the full-blown chapter two but there are too many things I need to clear up first. Hopefully I will get chapter two up in less than a week. Try to be patient. You guys deserve my very best but my very best takes time. Feel free to email me with questions or comments.  
  
Chapter Two: "Of Families and Faces" - Inuyasha doesn't integrate well into a crowded house of teenage girls. As he considers leaving an unexpected person unknowingly convinces him to stay. Also, someone sees a familiar face. It's not who you think. 


	3. Chapter Two: Of Faces and Families

Disclaimer is the same as in the prologue.  
  
Author's note at the end.  
  
"Borrowed Time" - Chapter Two: Of Faces and Families  
  
"That was nothing," Buffy began as she stood before the large group of potential slayers. She told them of her dream and as their faces portrayed the hurt and distrust they felt, her voice became hard. "They didn't come here tonight for any other reason than to simply prove that they could. The First is playing with us and the next game he has planned is another bout with the Turok-han."  
  
The cheer that had resulted from their success with the Bringers dissolved almost instantly from the room. One Turok-han had killed a potential before and Buffy herself nearly died in her campaign to destroy it. They all felt as if they had taken a step backwards.  
  
Inuyasha stood in the background, listening carefully to the questions and concerns raised by the anxious potentials. There were so many of the girls, so young, so fragile, all of them dripping with the stench of fear. That any of them could inherit the Slayer's place seemed impossible.  
  
Standing apart from the potentials in isolated pockets of quiet reservation were the Slayer's friends, the woman, the demon, the man and the monk. He watched them take the situation with mature determination. They had shared a great deal and fought side by side for a long time. He saw this in their faces and the way they regarded one another. Buffy had no speeches for them. They knew each other too well.  
  
As she spoke of commitment and the need for courage and strength she looked to Inuyasha. The hanyou bristled uncomfortably under her attention. He leaned towards Tetsuo and said in a low voice, "She keeps staring at me. Why?"  
  
"Perhaps she is waiting for your input," he replied mildly.  
  
Inuyasha sneered at this suggestion knowing how unlikely the Slayer would desire his comments. "This is stupid," he huffed in frustration. Shackled from sharing his thoughts with Buffy he gave them to Tetsuo. "We shouldn't be just waiting for him to attack. These demon thugs had to leave a trail. We should track him down, fight him where he lives." His words came in stilted harsh whispers meant only of the monk's ears. He stifled a growl directed at the vampire as he watched him smirk in response to his suggestions.  
  
He needed to remember that his ears were as sensitive as his nose.  
  
"Fight who?" Tetsuo asked with a curious turn of his head. "You speak as if this is Naraku. You don't really understand what they're up against."  
  
Inuyasha brought himself nose to nose with the monk. "Then tell me," he demanded in a growl.  
  
Without flinching, Tetsuo explained. "This is the First Evil. It takes no tangible form. It corrupts the good with fear and malice. It uses the wicked as its pawns, to fight the war in its name." The monk held his proper posture and seemed to have absolutely no fear for Inuyasha or the entity of which he spoke. With the close proximity between the two, Inuyasha sensed something unsettling.  
  
In the absence of fear stood something else . . . .resignation.  
  
"Naraku was merely an aspect of it, a tool," Tetsuo continued softly. "You can defeat the demons but it will always send more."  
  
He saw it now, a strain in the monk's eyes he had not seen before. Tetsuo was barely holding himself together. Inuyasha looked down to the monk's hand, wrapped and bound in prayer beads. The words took new meaning. The war meant everything to Tetsuo. He was already giving his life. "So they can't win," the hanyou said finally.  
  
The monk looked away towards the Slayer still trying to inspire her troops. "The First Evil cannot be destroyed," he stated. "The best that could happen is a stalemate."  
  
"If this is so damned impossible, why the hell did you bring me here!?" Inuyasha barked angrily in a voice much louder than he had used before. The rest of the crowded house turned their attention unexpectedly in his direction. With so many eyes on him, the hanyou felt his cheeks flush.  
  
Tetsuo tugged him into the kitchen away from the others. He regarded Inuyasha with a look so well known that if he were Miroku, he would have smacked the other on the head with his staff. "So they might survive another week," he whispered angrily, almost desperately. "To give them hope."  
  
"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Inuyasha snapped.  
  
"For this time, they are your group, your family," he answered, shoving him back into the living room packed with the multitude that was his new family. "Become a part of them."  
  
At his sudden reentry the potentials turned in unison to face him. Buffy and her friends had already left the room. He looked to the group of young women with growing discomfort. They were equally unsure of him. The only semi-benevolent demon they had met before was Spike and his ears were logically placed on the sides of his head.  
  
With a heavy frustrated sigh, Inuyasha sat with them on the floor.  
  
One of the girls, Molly, cleared her throat noisily. "Willow said you might have fought the First before," she began shyly. "Did you fight the Bringers then?"  
  
"Those things outside?" he asked sharply. At her frightened nod, he swallowed and tried to soften his tone. "No, but he sent different demons, ones that I knew on sight came from him."  
  
She smiled politely, this girl who would be a killer of demons. He could see some of them relax a bit and he felt a strange sense of protection over them he couldn't explain. Maybe this wouldn't be so difficult to be a part of them for a week.  
  
Another girl, Rona, cocked her head to one side and grinned in a way that caught him off guard. "Can I touch your ears?" she asked playfully.  
  
The blood flowed quickly to his already pick cheeks.  
  
The front door opened suddenly, letting in a spectacled, middle-aged gentleman. Behind him lurked a frightened, confused girl with pale blonde hair.  
  
"Giles has brought another one," Rona remarked. She got to her feet to greet the girl.  
  
"Does this happen often?" Inuyasha asked curiously.  
  
"Almost every night," Molly answered.  
  
Tetsuo came from the kitchen and smiled greatly at seeing the return of his friend. "Rupert!" he called happily. "I trust your evening went well."  
  
Giles nodded absently as he encouraged the girl to come in. "Yes, quite," he replied. He then turned to Rona. "This is Irina. She's from Estonia. She will need to be brought up to speed."  
  
Rona took the girl by the hand and smiled. "C'mon, let's get you settled."  
  
As Irina passed Inuyasha, a look of surprise and puzzlement mottled her face. A growing frustration began to erupt in the dog demon. Too many people. Too many scents. Too much fear and despair. Each night more and more of them would come. Each more afraid than the ones before. He didn't think he could stand it.  
  
"Rupert Giles," Tetsuo announced, catching Inuyasha's arm as he attempted to vacate the room. "May I present to you, Lord Inuyasha."  
  
Inuyasha looked to the spectacled man and saw his expression matched Irina's. Neither was happy to see him and the dog demon didn't have it in him to comfort them. "Feh," he grunted indifferently. He then yanked his arm out of the monk's grasp so that he could leave.  
  
"Tetsuo," Giles said tersely. "Am I to believe that you summoned a demon to help us fight the First?"  
  
"Half-demon," the monk corrected.  
  
The Watcher's blood pressure was visibly rising as he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I have enough trouble with the demon who's already here," he said wearily.  
  
"We cannot afford to be picky about our allies," Tetsuo told him patiently. "He will prove his worth. You'll see."  
  
Giles pursed his lips in futile acceptance. His friend had a point. Their list of allies had grown abysmally short. No one was willing to fight an unwinnable war. He knew he should be grateful. He just couldn't bring himself to admit it.  
  
Not much time had passed when the front door opened again. A harried, young woman with shoulder length blonde hair came in and flung the door closed with dramatic flair. "Next time I go out to get information, I'm taking someone with me," she announced to everyone within earshot. Her gaze narrowed on Xander who came towards her with a piece of plywood to cover the broken window. He met her eyes and her loud tone softened with embarrassment. "Somehow threatening demons with Slayer vengeance isn't as believable when I say it by myself," she said for his ears alone.  
  
"Did you learn anything?" he asked with concealed worry as he looked her over. If she was hurt, she hid it well.  
  
"Besides that it sucks to be human?" Anya snapped. She threw down her jacket and purse and fell into the nearest chair. "Nothing that you want to hear," she sighed. She watched him nailing the board over the window and felt a wave of nostalgia wash over her. She loved to watch him work. So much was lost. So much she missed.  
  
Anya shook her head, ridding herself of the intoxicating moment. She focused her thoughts on her unhappy news. "The First is going to raise another Turok-han," she said.  
  
Xander nodded vaguely, showing less distress than she had expected. "We sort of figured that out. We had uninvited guests," he told her as he made a sweeping gesture over the damage done by the Bringers.  
  
Anya smiled grimly. "I can tell from the redecorating." This time she looked at him in search of any injury. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief as he kept at his repairs. He was unharmed. Somehow they had managed to survive another day. The future was uncertain and in her view quite fickle.  
  
Inuyasha rushed suddenly through the living room from the kitchen. The mechanisms that opened the back door had frustrated him. He had thought of ripping the door out of its frame but had reconsidered and decided to try the front door first. He had to get out. So many people in one place was driving him insane.  
  
Anya followed him with wide eyes.  
  
The hanyou found the front door just as unyielding and began to growl, raising his clawed hand to strike it.  
  
Xander took two quick steps and grabbed the doorknob before Inuyasha could tear the whole thing down. "Here, allow me," he said with his usual chagrin as he easily turned the knob and opened the door.  
  
"Feh," he snorted as he stepped outside. That was all the hanyou would offer the man as a thank you. Xander simply shook his head and shut the door.  
  
Finally Anya broke her incredulous silence. "What is Inuyasha doing here?" she asked.  
  
Xander blinked in surprise at his former fiancé. "You know him?"  
  
Anya's brow furrowed deeply as she tried to form her answer. She did know him. He seemed soulfully familiar but as she reached for a specific memory that would explain her recognition it slipped away. She couldn't understand why, but this dog demon felt important. She struggled out a feeble reason. "Not personally, but he was pretty big in Japan."  
  
Xander watched her through narrowed eyes. He could tell that she was hiding something. "I didn't know you did much in East Asia," he commented.  
  
Anya smiled weakly. Her mind still reeled to find some meaning to her discomfort. "Vengeance knows no borders."  
  
TBC  
  
Author's Note: I had meant to add another scene of someone subtly convincing Inuyasha that it was a good thing for him to stay. Time ran late and I thought you might like an update sooner rather than later. I will write it up as a short interlude and try to post it sometime this weekend.  
  
I am following the manga because (honestly) I haven't seen the series yet. I am unsure of exactly where this takes place. I had thought of placing it after Kikyou's fall but I might make it before. There could be a way I could fit her into this. I'm still working on it. Believe it or not, your suggestions have swayed me.  
  
Your reviews fuel me to write good stuff. Thanks.  
  
Coming up: Interlude One - Overlooking the well that brought him here, Inuyasha wonders if he is up to an unwinnable fight. A soft and curious voice convinces him of his usefulness.  
  
And then-  
  
Chapter Three: "Of Wounds and Swords" - The first big fight with the First. More than just a few things go wrong. 


	4. Chapter Three: The Power of Sisters

Disclaimer is the same as in the prologue.  
  
Author's note at the end.  
  
"Borrowed Time" - Chapter Three: The Power of Sisters . . . an interlude  
  
The rain had stopped and Inuyasha stood over the hole that had summoned him there. He looked down at the short length of wood that had been taken from the sacred well he knew so intimately. Kagome's well.  
  
What must they be thinking? In the blink of an eye, he vanished, brought to this strange land to fight in an impossible war. It would be so easy to go back. Just one step and he would leave this insanity behind him. Were they looking for him? Did they worry? Did she miss him?  
  
The piece of wood had cracks in it, old ones made long ago by a great force being pressed against it. The hanyou nudged the board with his foot.  
  
"You probably shouldn't touch that," a soft voice called out to him form the house. The young girl approached him with an uncertainty that she hid behind her smile and her casual tone of voice. "I don't know a lot about magic wells but if you want to be able to go back, maybe you should just leave it like it is."  
  
Without turning to face her he asked stiffly, "Did your sister send you?"  
  
"No, I just--" Dawn began and suddenly she frowned. "How did you know she's my sister?"  
  
"Your scent," Inuyasha answered matter-of-factly. "You smell like her . . . but different."  
  
She nodded, hugging her arms around herself to ward off a sudden chill. "Without the Slayerness," she said. Her voice softened with a hint of disappointment. "I get that a lot. . . .Are you coming in?"  
  
The hanyou shook his head. "I don't like the dark mood in there."  
  
Dawn smirked at his observation of her friends. "Yeah, we get like this about this time of year." When he turned his furrowed brow towards her she sighed and said, "It's complicated."  
  
Inuyasha looked away from her again. His thoughts were heavy. He wanted to go home but jumping back down the well seemed too much like running away. "Tetsuo said I would give them hope," he told her. "If it was hope they wanted, they shouldn't have summoned me."  
  
"Buffy doesn't know you," Dawn said in a voice that had suddenly become strong. "She didn't ask for you by name. She asked for help. She asked for strength. This monk came and dug a well and you came out. I don't know what you can do but you're here." The force of her words turned his attention to her. This girl, who knew nothing of him, threw all of her faith in him. He suddenly remembered another demon-slayer with a wide-eyed little sister. If only he had trusted . . .  
  
Dawn reached out and touched his arm. "You could have turned your back on us but you didn't," she told him. "There's a lot of hope in that."  
  
For a moment his expression softened. Something she said must have reached him but then he turned away, crouching down by the old, weathered board. His arm slipped lightly out of her grasp, almost like she never touched him at all.  
  
Dawn peered over his shoulder to the board. He traced the cracks with the tip of his claw.  
  
"It looks broken," she said quietly.  
  
"It is," he replied.  
  
She shrugged. "It's pretty old."  
  
"Time didn't do this," the hanyou said. "I did." He thought of the day he pushed her down the well. He had sent her to another world to keep her safe. This time she was safer in his world.  
  
* * *  
  
Spike looked out the window to the two in the darkened backyard. A sense of protectiveness began to rise in him. "I should break that up," he remarked.  
  
"Don't trouble yourself," Tetsuo said, watching the same scene that discomforted the vampire. He was not surprised that Dawn would seek out Inuyasha. Her sister's attention was so focused on the potentials that she felt displaced. She wanted to make a connection. Unfortunately her attention would be unrequited. "He is too dense to see that as you do," he explained. "Even if he did, his heart is already occupied."  
  
TBC  
  
Author's Note: I know this is short but it's just an interlude. Read on to the next chapter.  
  
Chapter Four: "Broken Things" - Battle time and things don't go as planned but then again, when do they?. 


	5. Chapter Four: Broken Things

Disclaimer is the same as in the prologue.  
  
Author's note at the end.  
  
"Borrowed Time" - Chapter Four: Broken Things  
  
Inuyasha tilted his head to the wind as he, the Slayer, and a handpicked few approached the high school. He had caught a scent that worried him, something foul that he could not identify. "I smell a demon," he told the others.  
  
Spike looked to him and frowned. He tried to catch the scent himself but to him it was very faint. What he did smell put him ill at ease. "It's the Turok-han," he said.  
  
"Damn," Buffy muttered. "I was afraid of that." She had hoped to reach the Seal before they could be raised. A small hope but one too easily crushed. "Can you tell how many?" she asked.  
  
"No," Spike answered.  
  
"Two," Inuyasha corrected, proving his sense of smell to be more powerful. From his scabbard at his waist he pulled an ancient sword. "They're coming fast from there!" With an impatient gesture he indicated the school.  
  
The only potentials chosen to come, Rona, Molly and Kennedy moved together with weapons ready. They stood with shoulders touching, to minimize vulnerability, but held themselves back. Buffy, Spike and Inuyasha were the front line. If Bringers accompanied the Turok-han, the potentials would fend them off and keep them from interfering. In the back stood Willow and Tetsuo, for reasons the hanyou refused to understand. The Slayer had spoken briefly of the possibility of retreat and escape. It was a possibility he found stupid to entertain.  
  
Two Turok-han ran ape-like towards them under the pale-yellow light of the street lamps. Buffy held her battle axe in front of her and threw a glance to Inuyasha. "They're not alone, are they?"  
  
The hanyou shook his head. He barred his teeth, ready for war. "Six of those Bringer bastards coming from the sides and . . ." he paused, trying to place the scent, "something that once was dead."  
  
"They were all once dead," Spike stated, stepping forward with a cleft blade. He chose the weapon for its long blunt handle to keep his enemy farther than arm's length away. "They will be again."  
  
Inuyasha swung his sword at a leaping Turok-han. The rusty blade bounced off the tough hide of the demon and did little more than knock the monster back. He growled in frustration and raked his claws towards his enemy. The Tetsusaiga did not transform.  
  
The potentials broke their tight formation to take on the approaching Bringers. Willow and Tetsuo advanced to help them. Though the use of his staff was efficient enough to help Rona incapacitate two of the blind drones, his true concern laid elsewhere.  
  
Noticing his fractured attention, Willow called to him, "There's something wrong, isn't there?"  
  
He nodded vaguely as a fleeting look of despair crossed his face. "I was afraid of this. Inuyasha's sword isn't working," he said gravely. His eyes caught Willow's. "This may go badly."  
  
Willow looked to the hanyou who had sheathed his sword and now resorted to using the scabbard to beat at the Turok-han. The demon sliced into Inuyasha's arm. He barely flinched at the wound as he reached into it with his free hand and flung what appeared to be daggers formed from his own blood. The Turok-han stumbled backwards, blinded by the attack.  
  
The hanyou descended upon it mercilessly, beating it with Tetsusaiga's scabbard.  
  
Buffy and Spike worked in unison against the other Turok-han. Their attack worked flawlessly as Spike drew its attention to him so that Buffy could bring the blade of her axe through its neck. She felt a flush of satisfaction as the monster turned to dust.  
  
"Impressive," a strange female voice called out. "But I wonder how well you would do without your entourage?"  
  
Suddenly a blizzard of wooden daggers assaulted the potentials and Spike. Rona looked down in surprise to find her arm pinned to a tree by a knarled looking wooden stake. With great pain, Molly pulled one out of her leg. Kennedy had miraculously blocked one headed for her midsection with her sword, which now missed its tip. Spike pulled three out of himself, all having missed vital areas.  
  
All those assaulted barely had breath before their new enemy presented herself.  
  
From the ground below them rose what appeared to be a woman, with long dark hair and pale, white skin. She wore ancient armor made with intricately carved plates of wood pieced together with strips of sinew. Her eyes were obsidian. She smiled at her work. "Introductions aren't required but they are polite," she said with an accent no one could place. "I am Tona of the Earth."  
  
Buffy opened her mouth to reply but her words were lost as Tona raised her hand toward Spike, releasing from her fingertips another barrage of wooden stakes. The vampire screamed in pain and the Slayer instinctively turned towards him--leaving her open for Tona's secondary attack.  
  
In the blink of an eye, the woman's fist came crashing towards Buffy's chest, transforming into a deadly wooden missile.  
  
Her attention drawn away from the attack, she did not see what knocked her to the ground. Buffy only realized her danger as she looked up to see Inuyasha take the full force of the blow that was meant for her. Blood bubbled up into his mouth as Tona's fingers writhed through his back to the front of his chest.  
  
"What are you doing?" Buffy cried out to him in horror.  
  
"I'm protecting you," he said. His voice came out as a harsh accusing whisper. His eyes did not see her. His ears only barely heard her. Before he lost all senses he fingered his sword, pulling at it with what strength he had left. Tetsusaiga remained quiet and untransformed.  
  
"Willow, get the potentials out of here," Tetsuo said as he began to unwind his beaded hand. "Do what you must to shield them." He did not look at her but stepped forward into the fray, leaving her no room to argue with him. She simply nodded as she and Kennedy grabbed Molly and Rona to make their escape.  
  
Tetsuo stood over Spike protectively as the vampire slowly regained his senses. The monk held his shielded hand up and called to Buffy. "Hold tight to something, Slayer, and don't let him go."  
  
Inuyasha's eyes held a momentary clarity as he screamed, "Tetsuo, NO!"  
  
Buffy looked to the monk in confusion as he unveiled the abyss in his hand. She could feel the pull of the vortex immediately before her mind could even register what was happening.  
  
Tona released her deadly hold on Inuyasha and seemed to melt into the ground beneath her. Buffy caught his suddenly limp body, holding tightly to him as she anchored herself to a tree root. The force of the pull around her dragged the air out of her lungs.  
  
She turned her head again towards Tetsuo, risking a glance at what was happening. Never in all her dreams would she have imagined that the monk held that kind of power. The ragged bodies of the Bringers flew like discarded rags towards a black hole in the palm of his hand, where they disappeared. Forever. She needed all of her strength to keep her and Inuyasha from following them.  
  
The Turok-han Inuyasha had beaten with the scabbard of his sword clawed desperately at the ground trying to keep from being pulled in. His grip on the soil could not overcome the vacuum of the abyss and with one last howl, he too was sucked in.  
  
Tetsuo closed his hand, wrapping his palm once again in his prayer beads. The air grew frighteningly still. "She escaped through the ground," he said with disappointment. "'Tona of the Earth'".  
  
Still clinging to the bleeding Inuyasha, Buffy cared nothing for his quiet observation. "Why didn't you tell us you could do that?" she demanded.  
  
Tetsuo bent down to look at Inuyasha's wound. The hole was massive. The wood witch had made him an example of what she could do. He touched the blood stained robes lightly. "I have my reasons," he replied.  
  
Inuyasha flickered to consciousness briefly. He wanted to ready himself for another attack but found himself inexplicably unable to move. He could not open his eyes or call out. He was left with nothing but the mounting pain of his body beginning to knit itself back together. Wounded, vulnerable and surrounded by strangers, a part of him began to fear.  
  
But then he heard the voice, quiet reassuring, almost fatherly as it spoke for his ears alone. His fear slipped away as he drifted out of consciousness. Somehow he knew he was safe.  
  
"Don't worry, boy. I've got you now."  
  
TBC  
  
Author's Note: Life gets in the way of my writing so often that it insults you to tell you so. If I take this long again assume that stuff just happens and that I will update when I've got something worthy. I have another chapter coming but it's not quite done yet. Soon though. Thanks for your reviews. You guys are great.  
  
Chapter Five: Reasons-Buffy's mad but her anger only masks a deeper feeling, guilt. Tetsuo reveals his true concerns and Willow learns something that will bring her to tears. 


	6. Chapter Five: Reasons

Disclaimer is the same as in the prologue.  
  
"Borrowed Time" - Chapter Five: Reasons  
  
Buffy stormed through the front door of her home, glaring angrily at everyone and everything that might cross her path. The door stood open behind her and Spike followed carrying the near lifeless dog demon hero back from their disastrous battle. She had fought many monsters in her life, demons and humans alike but never had she seen so much blood. He was going to die and it was all her fault.  
  
"What should I do with him?" Spike asked as Tetsuo came in behind him. The vampire thought the humane act would be to throw him into the sacred well. At least then he could die in his own world.  
  
But Tetsuo had different ideas.  
  
The monk looked to Buffy who refused to meet anyone's eyes. He tried to consider a place that might comfort the injured hanyou, something he would hesitate to destroy out of frustration. "Your sister's bed would be best," he advised.  
  
"Fine, take him," the Slayer replied, biting off her words.  
  
Spike carried the unconscious hanyou upstairs and Buffy watched him sullenly.  
  
"You're angry," Tetsuo accused.  
  
She turned on him with all the wrath that she had built up against herself. She needed a target and he was convenient. "You bet I'm angry," she said through clenched teeth. "You promised me help. You promised me someone powerful and he's going to bleed to death in my sister's bed."  
  
Tetsuo furrowed his brow but seemed otherwise unfazed by her fury. "There are reasons to be concerned but Inuyasha's injuries should be the least of your worries," he said unflinchingly.  
  
Buffy blinked and stared at him agape, astounded at his calm demeanor. "That demon punched her fist through that idiot's chest."  
  
"As much of an idiot as he seemed to be, he put himself in harm's way to save your life," Tetsuo said. He saw the look of guilt flash across her face and just as quickly as it appeared, she hid it away. "You overestimate his risk," he told her as he gestured towards the stairs. "Please let me show you."  
  
Willow stood watching over the injured hanyou, at the foot of Dawn's bed. She turned as Buffy and Tetsuo entered the room. "Buffy, he's so still," she said softly as if she feared she might wake him.  
  
"That's my doing," the monk explained. He stepped forward and pulled on a fold of Inuyasha's robe. He revealed a small slip of paper with scribbled hastily in Japanese.  
  
"A spell scroll?" Willow said with surprise.  
  
Tetsuo smiled at his own cleverness. "He hates to sit idly, even with such extensive wounds. If not for my preparation, he might still be on the trail for your elusive enemy."  
  
"How?" Buffy asked with a considerable amount of doubt.  
  
Tetsuo pulled Inuyasha's robe open to fully reveal the extent of his injuries. He frowned as he did so, feeling a need to apologize for compromising the hanyou's privacy. He kept his discomfort to himself as he pointed carefully to the edge of the wound. "Look closely," he instructed the Slayer and the witch, "here and here."  
  
The tension around Buffy's face began to ease as she saw what the monk wanted to show her. "It's already begun to close," she observed. She leaned closer seeing a spot near the wound where the skin seemed to pucker slightly. She pointed it out. "What's that?"  
  
"A scar," Tetsuo replied. "He has suffered this injury more than once before. The scar formed because his healing was slowed from poison." He paused as he closed Inuyasha's robe hiding his scars, returning his dignity. "That is not the case today. Tomorrow he will be on his feet again."  
  
Buffy shook her head softly. She had felt stupid and foolish for dropping her guard during their battle. If Inuyasha had not thrown himself in that demon's path . . . . Slayer strength or not, she would be dead. He had saved her and he would live to fight again. Hope lived in her still. "I'm sorry," she told the monk. "I guess I overreacted."  
  
Tetsuo's face did not reflect the relief she felt. "You have reason for concern, just not with his injuries," he said gravely.  
  
Buffy frowned again. "Then what?"  
  
"His sword," he replied.  
  
Willow looked to him with worry. "You said something about it not working right," she said recalling his fears during battle.  
  
The monk sighed wearily. "I had hoped that his defending Buffy would be enough to trigger Tetsusaiga's transformation."  
  
Buffy caught the meaning of his statement. The hanyou and his strength were only part of what he had wanted to bring to their cause. The sword and what he could do with it were where he had invested his hope. "What happens when it changes?" she asked.  
  
"It becomes like nothing you have ever seen before," he said with a wonder only found in those who see legends. He had looked like that only once before, when he first saw Inuyasha. He seemed almost wistful. He had wanted so badly to see the mythical Tetsusaiga in all its power. He looked down at his sealed hand with regret as he thought of what could have been. "A source of power that would have made my intervention unnecessary."  
  
As Tetsuo slipped out of Dawn's room, Willow followed quietly behind. When last she had seen the monk he had ordered her to leave the battle, shielding the potentials. He never said what she was to be shielding them from. He had let her assume that it was the Turok-han or Tona, but she knew now that wasn't true. She had paused in her escape. She had looked back at her friends and she saw and she knew.  
  
She reached for him and caught him by his sealed hand. He turned and faced her with a look of alarm that he quickly suppressed when he met the warmth of her eyes. "I didn't know your magic could be so powerful," she stated, revealing her witness to his last great action in battle. With a stark innocence and gratitude she said, "You saved us all."  
  
He looked away uncomfortably. "It isn't magic," he said sadly. "It's a curse."  
  
Willow frowned. "What do you mean?"  
  
Tetsuo turned to her with an expression of immeasurable tenderness. To her great surprise he took her face in his hands. She stood in his touch held motionless by the sudden turn of intense emotion. Finally the words spilled out of him like a confession. "I won't be here when you need me most, Willow Rosenberg."  
  
"Where are you going?" she asked in a strained voice. She didn't understand. How could he leave them? Through the contact of his flesh upon hers, she felt the gentle touch of his mind. She returned that touch and through that delicate connection, she asked her question again.  
  
He answered her with a flood of anguished images. Generation upon generation of his bloodline searching for an enemy they can never defeat. Fathers passing to their sons the accursed gift only for them to meet the same tragic end.  
  
It would all end that night but not in the way any of them hoped it would.  
  
Willow's tears flowed freely as they broke contact. "No," she whispered softly, "you can't." Her mind reeled for a solution but she knew she couldn't find one. All her magic and she couldn't stop it. She struggled for composure and found herself anchored by the monk's hold on her arms. "You have to tell Inuyasha."  
  
"He already knows," Tetsuo sighed heavily. He relaxed the façade he had erected to hide the great strain he felt since he last revealed the abyss within him. Inuyasha knew. What went through the hanyou's mind when he screamed at him during the battle the monk could only wonder. He knew the sacrifice he had made, the cost to save them all. Why would the dog demon care enough to want to stop him? "That is why I had to bind him," he continued softly. "That is why he kept his distance. He could smell it on me, the fate that will one day meet his friend."  
  
Willow stood in stunned silence, oblivious to the words Tetsuo tried to offer in comfort. All she knew was that he was going away and she couldn't stop it. He took her in his arms and in an almost fatherly fashion kissed her softly on her forehead, a kiss of farewell. She tried to force herself to speak but no words would come. She wanted to say something but everything that came to mind sounded too much like good-bye. She watched him walk away, down the stairs to the rest of the household that was oblivious to his fate.  
  
When Kennedy found her minutes later, she had not moved. Willow met her lover's concern with grief-stricken eyes and collapsed into sobs in her embrace. Behind her emotional storm, in a calm within herself, a plan began to come together.  
  
She could not stop Tetsuo's fate but there was one thing left she could do.  
  
TBC  
  
Chapter Six: "Not To Be Alone"- Tetsuo leaves but not before giving Giles something important. 


	7. Chapter Six: Not To Be Alone

Disclaimer is the same as in the prologue.  
  
Author's note at the end.  
  
"Borrowed Time" - Chapter Six: Not To Be Alone  
  
Dawn stood at the foot of her bed watching the motionless hanyou in the near darkness of her room. She had heard them talking, Buffy, Willow and the others who were there. They talked about his speed and the ferociousness of his attack. In words that she could clearly hear, they spoke of how he saved Buffy's life. In quieter, more fearful tones, they talked about the blood and how nothing they knew could survive a wound like his.  
  
She had to see for herself and what she saw now caught her breath in her throat and made her heart beat loudly in her chest. How could his heart survive now that it seemed to be open to the elements? How could his lungs pull in the air they needed in a chest so marred? How could anything in him work again after a battle like that?  
  
Without conscious thought, Dawn's hand reached out for him. Her fingers touched the delicate parchment of the spell scroll tucked in his robe. "I want to talk to you but . . . I can't tell if you're listening," she said, seemingly to the room. She felt embarrassed and curious and frighteningly secretive all at once. Some things she just had to know. She could not pull her hand away from the scroll even if she wanted to. "If I remove the binding spell, will you promise that you'll stay put?"  
  
With surprising ease she lifted the spell from his robe. She watched him closely for a sustained moment but he did not seem to move. He breathed but so quietly that she could not hear it. Only a small rise in his chest revealed his life. He had to be deep in sleep. God knew he needed it. He probably hadn't heard a word she said. Embarrassed, she realized she had just spoken to herself.  
  
Dawn turned away from him to a small desk and laid the spell scroll down. Around her mirror she had attached photos, the smiling faces of those she loved, snapshots of happiness frozen in time. She looked at them with bittersweet longing. They had stood at the edge of doom time and again and somehow with wits and miracles they lived through it.  
  
'Almost' . . . she thought as her eyes lingered on a photo of Tara.  
  
Would this time be different?  
  
"Where's the monk?"  
  
Inuyasha's voice broke so unexpectedly into her reverie that Dawn practically jumped. She turned around suddenly and found herself face to face with him. "What are you doing up?!" she screeched in a high pitched whine that he had heard from other females whom he had caught off guard. "You're not supposed to get up! Sit!!"  
  
Inuyasha flinched at her comment, bracing himself for an automatic reaction that never came.  
  
Dawn noticed his reaction. She didn't understand how her shrillness would cause him to recoil. "What?" she asked.  
  
"Nothing," he huffed. Shaking his head, he tried to dismiss his own weakness. That word, said by the right girl would have flattened him to the ground. Most of the time it made him angry enough to scream. This time it didn't happen and its absence only reminded him of his distance form home. "Where's Tetsuo?" he asked, casting himself from one discomfort to another.  
  
"I think he's with Giles," she answered. "Why?"  
  
Inuyasha settled himself back down on her bed. He laid back and stared up at the ceiling. He missed the stars of the open sky. "Feh, it doesn't matter."  
  
The frantic beating of Dawn's heart began to steady itself from the shock of Inuyasha's unexpected awakening. Seeing him back on the bed eased her worry over his injuries. He shouldn't have been able to move at all, she thought as she watched him scowl at her ceiling. His mind was a mystery to her. He risked so much for people he only barely tolerated. Why? Her mind stumbled clumsily for some reason. She had to ask him but she didn't know how. "Willow says you saved Buffy," she blurted exposing her awkward abilities at talking to him.  
  
"Save your gratitude," he snapped. He liked admiration for great deeds and heroic action. Tonight he didn't deserve it and he didn't want to remind himself of his failure. "She got distracted and I . . . . I was trying something."  
  
"Did it work?" Dawn asked.  
  
He raised his head to show her the full venom of his annoyance. "Does it look like it did?!"  
  
"No," she replied. Her voice had become very small. She looked down at the floor and twisted her fingers up together to keep her hands still. She felt stupid.  
  
After a great pause of silence, Inuyasha allowed his voice to break the void. "I'll just have to do something different next time," he said. Dawn had picked him to be a hero for reasons he had trouble understanding or even finding. He had to figure out some way to accept that mantle and prove himself worthy of it, even if it was only to his own eyes. He looked to the nervous girl standing at the edge of the bed. Her eyes darted between the door to where she stood as she tried to resolve herself to stay or go. Her words of parting waited to be spoken. He had to give her something, some reassurance, just a little hope.  
  
"Dawn," he said, catching her eyes and holding them with his own, "I haven't been defeated yet."  
  
***  
  
Tetsuo crouched on the damp ground of the Summer's backyard. The air had chilled with the setting of the sun and a gentle breeze brushed through his black hair. The monk felt none of this. He only felt the inevitable, a hunger within him that would consume the world, all the good, all the bad, everything; a hunger that he possessed but was not his own. Soon it would be over. He just had to let go.  
  
He heard the tentative footsteps of his old friend behind him. Anyone who knew him well knew what was happening. At the moment that was only three people. One of them he told. One of them he only barely met. And the last was the truest friend he had ever known. "I'm sorry, Rupert," he said in a voice heavy with regret.  
  
Giles stepped to his side. Not able to look Tetsuo in the eye he stared off at the darkened skyline. "I'm sorry too," he echoed.  
  
"I had really hoped to be here for . . ." Tetsuo's voice trailed off. He could not find the proper word.  
  
"The end is near for all of us," Giles answered. His usual wry quality had returned only this time he was tainted with the sound of defeat. "Only nearer so for you."  
  
Tetsuo frowned at the Watcher. What dark times he must have seen to have brought him to this mood. His death should not cause them to give up. He was merely a casualty. "You should not despair," he told his friend. "There is hope for you yet." A trace of a smile played across his face as his mind turned to the adventures he would miss. "The sword will work. It only needs the proper stimulus."  
  
Giles sighed heavily and laid his hand upon the monk's shoulder. "I wish I had your faith," he said.  
  
Tetsuo smiled. For a moment he forgot his own misery and found the strength to bring cheer to his morose friend. "It is not faith, Rupert," he said with confidence. "It is only what I know." He pulled himself to his feet and reaching into his robes he pulled out an old book, worn and tattered with age. He had every intention of giving it to him. He did not want it destroyed in his demise. It was important and he hoped it would help them in this crucial time. "This is Miroku's journal," he explained, handing the book to Giles. "It chronicles every step of his journal with Lord Inuyasha until his death."  
  
The monk fell silent as the Watcher turned the book over in his hands, touching the delicate cover lightly with his fingertips.  
  
Tetsuo turned his face to the same bleak horizon that Giles had hidden his gaze moments before. "I must confess," he began. The words did not come as easily as he would have hoped. "My bringing him to you was not entirely selfless."  
  
Giles' eyebrows arched towards his hairline. "How so?" he asked.  
  
The monk looked to the makeshift well safely distanced away from him as if he stared into the past. He watched events unfold in his mind's eye and reported them with the detachment of a historian. "Inuyasha is torn between life and death, a choice he can never fully face while battling Naraku. But there will come a time when they will believe their journey is at an end. They will be lulled into a false sense of security." He paused as if pulling the full weight of his words out into the air took a painful use of strength. "He has a debt to pay and out of honor he will choose death."  
  
"What?" Giles sputtered in disbelief. "Why?"  
  
"Miroku believed he felt it was all he had left to give," Tetsuo said sadly. He shook his head, trying to remind himself that the one he spoke of still lived. He turned to the Watcher and took his arm in a strong grip. His tone still serious now became immediate. "But they will be deceived, for Naraku will rise again and their champion will be lost."  
  
Giles sensed the direction the monk was leading him. "And if he does not choose death?" he asked. "What would happen?"  
  
"It is possible, Rupert," he answered with no small measure of relief, "that he could destroy Naraku eventually--"  
  
"-weakening the power of the First."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"and saving your line."  
  
Tetsuo closed his eyes. "I am the last." He released Giles' arm and passed his hand over his face. His strength had begun to run out.  
  
Giles clapped his hand on the monk's shoulder hoping in some small way to support him. There was so little that could be done and the time had grown too late. "I am so sorry, my friend."  
  
"I am too," he replied. He held the weariness back like a man trying to catch a cloud with his arms. He reached up and clasped Giles' fingers with a thankful squeeze. "But I was glad to have this chance to save things. From that springs my hope."  
  
Tetsuo shuddered with the kind of tremble that did not come from the cold. He pulled away from his friend's grip as he tried to steady himself. His eyes stared blindly ahead and his breathing became raspy. Desperately he tried to bring focus to his thoughts. He had so much left to say. "No one knew his mind," he said, dragging his mind back to the past and the events recorded in Miroku's journal. "His death surprised them all." He looked to Giles now with a plea in his eyes. "Through the well the past can change. Save him and you save us all."  
  
He reached into his robes again and pulled out a small slip of paper. With a trembling hand he gave it to Giles. "Take this. It is what you need to awaken the Tetsusaiga."  
  
Giles took the paper. "Is it a spell?"  
  
Tetsuo shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut to hold back his considerable strain. "It is a phone-number," he explained, choking the words out. "All the arrangements have been made. They await your call."  
  
Giles' brow furrowed in confusion. "I don't understand."  
  
The monk opened his eyes again and he looked to the Watcher with more meaning than his words could convey. With great effort he spoke, "It is the life he does not choose."  
  
Giles nodded faintly to reassure his friend that he understood. Although he didn't, he hoped he would not fail him.  
  
Tetsuo gripped his beaded hand, clenching it tightly into a fist. The world began to dim around him. He could feel the pull and he had nothing left in him to stop it. "Forgive me, Rupert," he panted. "I cannot deny the abyss any longer."  
  
Giles stepped away slowly. His instincts told him to stay. His friend needed him. He was dying. The knowledgeable, rational side of him knew that he could die as well if he stayed. His leaving felt like betrayal but his feet pulled him away. He had to carry on. "Farewell, Tetsuo."  
  
Worse than stepping away was turning his back but that action brought him face to face with Willow. His startled reaction caused him to stumble over his words. "W-Willow, please," he said with an urgency that bordered on panic, "You must leave."  
  
With a weak smile she took Giles by the hand and pulled him closer to her until he stood at her side. "Don't worry, Giles," she said with reassurance in a voice that had turned raw with emotion. "We're safe. I've erected a barrier." Her eyes turned to Tetsuo's desperate state. He could no longer move. His eyes fixed on them as the sound of the vacuum rose around him. "No one deserves to die alone."  
  
***  
  
Buffy came into her kitchen to find Kennedy staring intently outside to the backyard. She walked up behind her and asked out of curiosity, "What's happening out there?"  
  
The younger woman looked startled by the sudden question but she would not move her hands form the door. She seemed to be protecting it. "Willow said everyone needs to stay in the house," she said.  
  
Buffy didn't like her tone or the implied order from her friend. "Why?" she snapped, hoping the answer was a good one.  
  
Kennedy turned her head to face the Slayer. She couldn't find a more sensitive way to say it and lying about it was simply wrong. "Tetsuo is going to die," she told her.  
  
"What?!" Buffy shouted. Her hands instantly reached for the door. She had to get outside. She had to fix this. Her mind reeled on the desperate thought that no one else was going to die in her home. Through the window, she could see Giles and Willow standing together and the monk crouched on the ground several feet away form them. Something was happening to him but she could not see.  
  
Kennedy caught her and blocked her from the door. Somehow she managed to hold her back and forced her to listen. "You can't stop it! No one can!"  
  
***  
  
Upstairs Dawn looked out of her bedroom window to the yard below. "What's Tetsuo doing in the backyard?" she asked frowning.  
  
Inuyasha snapped his head around to face her. His hackles raised in fear. He knew the answer to her question. "Dawn, get away from the window!" he barked at her.  
  
Unfazed by his demand, she continued to watch the scene below. "But something's going on out there," she argued.  
  
The hanyou leapt from the bed to reach out and pull the stubborn teenager away. "Dawn! Don't look outside!!"  
  
But he was too late.  
  
TBC  
  
Chapter Seven: "Mourning for the Dead"- Buffy talks with Dawn about the complications of loving a demon and Inuyasha wanders down to the basement and finds that has more in common with Spike than either of them realize. Should be a short chapter. 


End file.
